Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Exciting minutiae

A nice mention of Personal Days on the New Yorker's Book Bench! Lee Ellis writes:

Perhaps writing fiction about work in any meaningful way is challenging, but I don't think it's impossible. A few recent examples come to mind. The first is Ed Park’s "Personal Days." From the stinging embarrassment of the company softball team’s record-setting losses to the odd, enchanting power of a Post-it, Park repeatedly finds ways to turn the minutiae of office work into exciting, inviting prose. As for stories that take on both cubicle and spreadsheet, check out Ben Marcus’s recent bizarre yet rewarding “The Moors” in Tin House, or David Foster Wallace’s “Wiggle Room” in this magazine (an excerpt from his third, unfinished novel "The Pale King"). I'm also looking forward to Sam Lipsyte's forthcoming "The Ask", which is getting quite a bit of attention. It's a book that in part deals with both the destructive and encouraging aspects of office culture.


Ummm, same paragraph with Ben Marcus, DFW, and Sam Lipsyte? Heyyy—I'll take it™!

(Side note: The Ask = even better than Home Land. Trust me™!)

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